If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Cooking a Roast

07-30-2009, 08:24 AM

I'm a crock pot kind of guy when it comes to roasts so I'm not sure about the specifics when it comes to cooking one in an oven. What I'm wondering is what should the temp be in my oven when I put it in and then how long should I leave it? Also, what kind of pot/pan should this be in?

Comment

Any roasting pan will do. You are going to fire it up to a typical home oven temperature.
Same as which temperature you would normally roast.
Me? Next week, I'm gonna stick about 70# of beef in my BFO for Italian beef. Normally, I would let it heat up and moderate to about 325F. When it drops to about 275F (no fire), I close the door and let it hang out (covered) until morning. The lower temps tend to melt the collagen and fat.

Comment

If I'm not making gravy, as with a pork roast, I just throw the roast on a sheet of aluminum foil, close the door, and wait. Your oven has a complete self cleaning cycle everytime you fire it up to pizza temps.

Comment

Shay, I do like you are suggesting and use a roaster with rack. Mine is stainless steel.

By coincidence today I'm firing a load of rolls and a couple loaves of bread. When I rake out the fire and coals I will place them in a standing by BBQ. I then do the usual process and will bake the bread. Then I'll place the roaster uncovered in the WFO off to one side and place a wall of firebricks on edge along side. I put the firebricks off to one side when firing the WFO and so they are hot....one more advantage to a slightly larger WFO. I will then replace the coals stored in the BBQ with soaked hickory chips and smoke the roast (in the case of today pork shoulder). It'll smoke for about an hour then I'll rake the coals out, cover the roast and close up the WFO. Tomorrow the pork will be done and served on the rolls for my granddaughter's 22nd birthday.

Comment

I don't mean to hijack your thread Shay, but here's a few pictures.... and in the one you can see I screwed up badly and cracked the window in my baking door. I forgot to soak the door and then after it was in and started to smell scorching wood I realized my error. A quick splash with the garden hose (what was I thinking? it's borosilicate not Superman) and well you can see the crack. Bummer.

Also learned that a spray of olive oil and a dusting of flour works for release from the proofing basket but it tends to "over brown" the surface sooner than a side by side non oiled loaf. Living and learning, life's not long enough for all the mistakes I like to make....

Oh, and those three specks of black in the photo with the bread and the pork that is part of the remains of the baker's parchment. Who said you could use that stuff twice? Not me, for me it ends up crisp, black and falls apart.

Comment

Well.. It was almost perfect.. The only problem is the oven really wasn't hot enough when I put the roast in to cook it fully, so I ended up throwing it in the inside oven for about 20 minutes to finish it off.. but it still turned out great. Next time I know to make sure the oven is at a steady 325ish before putting in the roast. When I did it I hit a high of around 340 and then let the fire die down, it was small so pretty quick to die down, and put the roast in but by then it had dropped to around 250..

All in all it was a good lesson in oven baking and temperature control. I now feel I have a better grasp of how things work. Next step is Pizza and my goal is for Friday night.. that should be my last day of curing.